[ Academia ] [ Litigation ] [ Regulatory & Policy ] [ Transactional ] as a Relevant Course outside SLS for those interested in Marketing : IP attorneys serving clients in the media, entertainment and sports sectors, particularly those who expect to address trademark issues, benefit from knowing something about marketing communications and product development. Students interested in new products and branding issues should consider taking 1 or more courses on marketing and customer focus. This course focuses on methods for measuring and understanding customer perceptions and brand equity.

General course
Description:

The objective of this course is to understand customer preferences, perceptions, and behaviors for product planning (and, to some extent, pricing decisions). A dominant paradigm in the course is to conceptualize customers as choosing among products and services based on product positioning on multiple attributes/features. Methods for measuring customers' preference trade-offs, perceptions, and trial and repeat purchase behaviors are emphasized. Topics include: Conjoint Analysis (an approach to measuring the values customers place on various product features), and related methods; their use in determining benefit segments, and in evaluating alternative product and pricing decisions; methods for measuring and understanding customer perceptions and brand equity; simulated and real test markets for predicting the likely success of new products; and customer adoption of new product categories. This course is particularly appropriate for careers in marketing, management consulting, and product development and management. The course project is a critical part of the course requirement and is to be done by self-selected four-person teams. The project will involve "Conjoint Analysis" - an assessment of the values customers place on various attributes of a product or service. Each team will collect and analyze data from a sample of 40 respondents. The "product" can be industrial or consumer, durable or non-durable, product or service that is of interest to the team members. The course project teams will also participate in a brand competition.

Course Style: A Substantive course teaches the law, theory, and policy in a particular area of law